Alpine had a disappointing Hungarian GP weekend after they had to retire both of their cars after lap 1 due to terminal damage. However, Esteban Ocon was lucky to get away with no injuries after his teammate crashed into him in the collision which caused them to retire. Following their retirement, it was found out that the collision caused his race seat to spit into two, which reminded former Williams driver Jack Aitken about one of his own injuries.
Aitken suffered a nasty injury back in 2021 when he was participating in the 24 Hours of Spa. He was involved in a heavy crash with three other cars at Raidillon which left him with a broken collarbone and a broken vertebra among other minor injuries.
Compared to that, the collision that Ocon suffered was minor. However, Aitken explained how the F1 cars do not have much suspension travel. Therefore, any moment the car jumps up into the air, the driver risks an injury. In that context, Ocon is lucky to walk away without any injuries according to Aitken.
It could have been much worse for Esteban Ocon
Speaking to the BBC Chequered Flag team, Aitken explained that Formula 1 cars are immensely stiff. Therefore when the car jumps up and lands, it sends a massive shockwave up the spine of the driver inside. This can quite easily cause a spine injury or a broken vertebra.
Aitken said, “I had an injury, a back injury, where I broke a vertebra. So he was quite fortunate and actually the seat breaking probably saved him and dissipated some of the energy.”
However, even though Ocon was lucky in terms of not getting injured, Alpine were immensely unlucky. For the second race in a row, the French team had to retire both of their cars.
Alpine’s poor luck in Hungary
Heading into the Hungarian GP race weekend, Alpine were determined to make a point after their poor weekend in Silverstone. Qualifying did not really go too well for the team with their drivers finishing P12 and P15. They were poised to make up the positions during the race.
However, things went from bad to worse for Alpine. They got caught up in a four-car collision at turn 1, set off by Guanyu Zhou who ran into the back of Daniel Ricciardo, who in turn clipped the Alpine of Ocon which in turn went flying into the other Alpine.
Following the crash, the team was left with no option but to retire the car. Alpine are having quite a tough time recently, having missed the train to become the second-best team on the grid after Red Bull, something that their rival McLaren is doing right now.
